Allotment/Veg Patch Thread 15 - will winter ever end?

[bookbook]

Hi everyone , just putting this up quickly , will add on later
Everyone welcome! :)

Tiz it isn't so much a recommendation as I haven't had any seedlings yet but I have sown Minibel tomatoes this year. They have an RHS award of garden merit , hopefully that means they'll be tasty!
I've seen my first bumblebee and butterfly of the season today so feeling very spring like here. Spent half an hour clearing a bed and sowing some wildflower seeds in pots for a wild area of the garden.
Have also planned what containers / materials I need to get hold of for the veg and herbs I'm planning to grow. Feeling a bit behind with that!

Lovely to read everyone’s plans. On holiday this week so hoping to get a few trips up to the plot. Bought a tayberry to plant as raspberries have been a failure (but thrive on nearby plots strangely), so thought I would try something new.

Thanks @bookbook something early sounds great as often we're planting things later than elsewhere as last frost date is around 10th May.

@TheSpottedZebra still open to another suggestion as well as the above.

I've got some pea seeds that are going out of date this year. I'm not intending to plant peas this year, mange tout are a much better investment of space and time I've decided, but was wondering if anyone had any tips for growing pea shoots, pre-soak first or not?

Bought a tayberry Tayberries are good. They don't get the viruses that raspberries get. They're a lot more vigorous - canes easily grow to 12 ft in a year. The idea is that you train the fruiting canes out in a fan, then any new canes are trained directly upwards in a bundle. After fruiting you prune the fruiting canes to the base, undo the new canes and train them in a fan.

Boysenberry and Loganberries are other good vigorous hybrid berries.

Afternoon !
had a quick trip to the plot to pick veg ( perpetual spinach and leeks ) - loads of people there :)
I even got given a bag of mucky carrots given !
Hoping the weather is okay tomorrow , I need to go and get some weeding done .

I had a couple of visits today; planting some new fruit trees and general sorting, found some slow worms too-children were so excited.

Hello, I'm a newbie to all things gardening! We've finally got a garden to plant in (after living in flats and renting, now we own and plan to be here for a long time). My husband has made four raised beds and we've been carefully planning what we're going to try this year, reading lots of books and watching YouTube.

Bed 1 will be potatoes.
Bed 2 will be carrots.
Bed 3 will be parsnips and pumpkins.
Bed 4 will be salad leaves, rocket, spinach.

We also plan to have courgettes in the ground and I already have rhubarb in a shady corner.

Does this sound okay? I never thought I'd be into gardening but I'm actually feeling excited about this!

I'd suggest adding some beans to that list, I find French Beans are straightforward and are fairly reliable

Anyone worried about what happens in a lockdown? We won’t be allowed to go out and water our allotments etc, they will become a mess won’t they? I’m still in the process of building most of ours, had it since January. Now facing the prospect that won’t be growing much this year aren’t I??

Hi all, I’m new to this, so hope it’s ok to join?

I’ve just bought myself a large vegtrug and have all my seeds and equipment ready to go and I have a separate bucket for potatoes. I was just wondering if I could have some advice. I have carrots, peas, broccoli, cauliflower, swede and tomatoes. I’m planning on sowing everything apart from the tomatoes straight into the trug. Is this a good idea? I was going to put my peas at the back on one side, my tomatoes at the back on the other, carrots in the middle and cauliflower and broccoli at the front at each side. I’ve also been looking at the best organic feed to buy and can’t seem to find the right one for all of them so any suggestions please?

@GrouchyKiwi what a beautiful doggy!!

@OakleyStreetisnotinChelsea what a shame your allotment hadn't been looked after beforehand, would have made it a lot easier for you. Sounds like you're putting lots of work in! Our tomatoes either get snaffled by DTS2 when they are still small, green and pea sized, or last year some actually rotted rather than ripening as the weather was so wet

@tizwozliz I keep all my seedlings on a sunny sideboard indoors, sadly no room for a greenhouse here. Usually I could put a few outdoors by now but where is the sun?!

Sorry to hear about your job @TheSpottedZebra, I hope things improve soon.

@SallyLovesCheese I only bought one rhubarb plant this year to see how it went - love rhubarb - it's growing brilliantly but I noticed that the DC have 'helpfully' moved it into a smaller pot, so I will probably have the world's smallest rhubarb sticks!

I am in awe of your veg hoard @bookbook

Thank you for the welcomes.

I've ordered a metric fuck tonne of enriched top soil and I've decided I'm lining the raised beds with weed resistant membrane and going no dig else it'll be an absolute ballache.

I'm hoping if we lock down it'll be in line with other countries allowing provision for exercise so going to the allotment will be ok.

Evening!
Welcome SallyLovesCheese and Youvegotafriendinme join the clan :) ( being nosey as most on here know) - whereabouts are you based North/South/East/West ?
Sally I agree that beans would be a good addition to the list .Think also - potatoes will be lifted between 30-90 days after planting depending on variety, so there will be a space to fill after that - don't leave it empty if possible, use it for quick growing stuff , or over winter veg . Also parsnips and pumpkins in the same bed . I think it depends on how big the bed is - pumpkins are vigorous growers , and scramble and cover everything ( unless you have plans to grow them up a trellis of some kind) so they may swamp the parsnips. They need loads of food and water too so factor that in- see if maybe you can put up a wigwam for beans perhaps , which grow well above the pumpkin leaves .
Youvegotafriend - how big is the trug? I am a bit worried it may be a bit crowded . things like swede and cauliflower are in the ground for a while , cauliflowers take up quite a bit of space . Even the small snowball variety needs to be spaced about 12-18" apart at a minimum . Broccoli ( I am assuming its headed aka calabrese) also needs to be spaced too.
It will need a lot of feeding and water . I would go for a general all round feed , ( maybe a slow release one is possible ) and maybe water with tomato feed once a week .
Well, it rained all morning , so once again , just a quick trip to pick a savoy . Thank you Ruby - it takes some work, but so worth it, particularly at this time of year :)

Thanks for the welcome! And suggestion of beans

@bookbook - we are technically South East, but right on the western edge! Central south, maybe?

We do have plans for the potato bed after we harvest. Can't remember what, my notebook is downstairs! A couple of different things, I think.

Re. pumpkins, the bed is fairly spacious but I plan to have cane wigwams for them to climb up. I'm hoping the parsnips will be okay with that!

We're kind of trying our best this year, see what grows, what we like, how manageable things are etc. Then we'll adjust next year. We've read so many books and watched videos, we just thought we should get something in the ground!

Right, tizwozliz tomatoes.

Cherry Toms:

• def sungold. Very sweet. Cheery colour.
• Gardner's Delight - smaller, red, really reliable. A cordon that needs frequent tying in, but a real do-er. Grows quite tall and continues fruiting.
• Black cherry. Also really reliable. Hugely prolific. A cordon again. Sort of muddy purple colour. Delicious but can be a bit mealy if you pick too late.
• Losetto. A small Bush Tom, excellent for hanging baskets. Quite resistant to blight (not totally blight-PROOF alas). Teeny fruits, usually early with a long season.
• sunstripe -also for hanging baskets. Golden red with faint stripes. Elongated. Almost taste slightly salted. My new favourite.

Re Ildi I was suggesting this a year or so ago as it was great in 2018. Not so much in 2019 for me, mine never really got away and didn't sweeten up when they did finally fruit. Sorry

As I should have lots of time on my hands now (no job, and also on the vulnerable so socially distance list), I was really thinking of getting going with my seed sowing. I'd done nothing so far, in fact the only seeds I'd sown were sweet peas.

But before I could get to the back of my shed to get to my propagator I had to clear a pile of stuff. That turned into a clear out and multiple tip trips. So that, combined with the great loo roll hunt means I've still not sown any seeds. And now the weather is horrid again.

Not sure where you are @TheSpottedZebra, where we are it's grim but the forecast for the next 3 days is much better.

My luffa seeds arrived today so will get those started tomorrow. The cosmos I planted at the weekend are germinating already!

Thinking about planting some radish and beetroot under fleece outside this weekend.

First of my tulips for cutting should be ready too.

Am in Bucks, tiz -hope the weather cheers up soon! I may do a(nother) seed order forthwith to cheer me up. Cheap shopping, and so rewarding. Slightly kicking myself that I didn't buy more compost, and now I'm really trying to avoid people.

Luffa is interesting-is that to help cut down on plastic, or is it for fun?

I love cosmos too -they last so, so long. Do you cut them too?

Hello, I'm back after an absence too. Mainly absent because I haven't done anything yet apart from buying seeds and chitting potatoes. However as all plans for the weekend are off that should change now. Good to "see" you all again. Sorry about the job Spotted, I will look forward to tomato chat. Sally* - I'm central south too, Surrey/Hants border area.

I planted a load of seeds today, not sure if it’s too early for some but thought I could always plant more in a few weeks. I’m in the SW so not really cold here. Planted peas, courgette, carrots today, already have tomatoes, beetroot and cauliflower sprouting.

Ordered 12 strawberry plants as I think mine are past it (have had them for over 7 years and last year the fruit was dry), ordered 12 raspberry canes and a pocket planter thing to go on the fence. Had a delivery of compost today (7 bags) so I’m all ready for lock down 😂

@Lovemusic33 almost identical here! Ordered 5 120L bags of compost and 4 50L manure along with a ton of big plastic pots - most of my garden is concrete and turf (for now...) and the only beds have well established shrubs so our veg growing is pot based this year. This is our first season in this house.
Have already sown early peas, today sowed broad beans, lettuce and spinach. Prepared the other pots.
I've got tomatoes courgettes nasturtiums marigolds verbena and lobelia sown and in the conservatory... some are coming up... probably too early but gardening is my escape at the moment!!
I'm also after some strawberries (wild) and a few more seeds - salad leaves, radish, spring onions, possibly chard and potatoes.
It may be too much!!

Tiddle I had wild strawberries pop up down the bottom of my garden last year, weird as nothing much grows there, they tasted amazing, I hope they pop up again this year.

Thanks for the welcome. It's really nice hearing what everybody else is growing and is certainly making me get on with things but I shall have to be very careful not to get more ideas than I have space for!

We are all staying home for a couple of weeks due to my younger son having a temperature last weekend, so we have been out in the garden a fair bit and I have been generally tidying things up a bit round the stawberry and herb patch and the raspberries, blackberries and blackcurrants.

I haven't really chosen special varieties of seeds this year. DH bought the children some kits for growing vegetables (peppers, tomatoes, cucumber and courgettes) and herbs from Lidl and the younger one really enjoyed planting the seeds and seeing them sprout. The older one liked it too until he realised we were trying to grow vegetables to eat and then declared it to be "Yuck!" and disappeared. Seeing the seeds grow into little plants is really exciting. They are currently in our utility room which has a transparent roof. After the other plants go outside, I'll probably grow salad leaves and basil there, as that worked well last year in the summer.

I have bought a kit for making raised beds, so I should have enough room for a few other things now. It should come next week. I have to get something to fill it too. We thought of doing it last year but didn't get round to it. This year it should be easier now the children are older and can occupy themselves in the garden rather than clinging to my leg. I would really like to try growing sweet potatoes, some type of squash and maybe celariac as DS1 likes eating those, so might take more interest. DS2 likes peas and sweetcorn, so I'd like to try those too.

I still have rainbow chard growing in our trug from last year. I don't know if I should just leave that as it is or if it is better to dig it up and plant fresh plants this year.

Looks like people have been panic buying seeds in our local Wilko!

Thanks Mere - must but some wire to train them against. Unless anything else is better?

Managed to get onions planted ( autumn ones seem to be doing ok but done a second planting just in case!). Did some weeding of strawberries and planted the fruit.